Letter: False notions about vaccinations threaten society

(Leo Correa | The Associated Press) In this Monday, Aug. 6, 2018, file photo, a health worker prepares a syringe with a vaccine against measles in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Health authorities in Thailand are racing to contain a measles outbreak in the country's southern provinces, where 14 deaths and more than 1,500 cases have been reported since September.

It is amazing how often the populace will give credence to a talking head who espouses a certain unproven philosophy as truth just because that person finds an effective way to message their erroneous beliefs. For example, a border wall is essential to stopping the flow of drugs, gangs, and human trafficking. Or, man-made climate change is a hoax because we are having a cold winter.

Perhaps the greatest current threat to the overall well-being of our society comes from a small, but significant, population who believe that childhood inoculations lead to autism or other disabilities.

If those "in the know" would dig back deeply, they would find that this belief stems from one Jenny McCarthy, an ex-Playboy Playmate of the Year. Her notions have been discredited by scientists as scientifically unsound. Yet thousands in our country hold some blind allegiance to the false data that McCarthy and her supporters present as truth.

The current outbreak of measles in pockets of areas where childhood inoculations are the lowest should give those who opt out of immunizing their children reason to take pause.